


slow down (take a moment to breathe)

by BlackBlood1872



Series: Paper Thin [2]
Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Alaina's Cat Cafe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cats, Emily is the voice of reason for these disaster men, Gen, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, Pining, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Slice of Life, oc is mostly background, that'll be resolved later dw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23953780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackBlood1872/pseuds/BlackBlood1872
Summary: Ben and Emily have a chat about his poor decision making skills.
Relationships: Ben Arnold & Emily Potter, Ben Arnold/Sammy Stevens
Series: Paper Thin [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1438756
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	slow down (take a moment to breathe)

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this soon after finishing wadgwp but switched fandoms and kinda forgot about it for a while. Then there was all the shit drama in the official discord recently, and now this is kind of a spite fic. What a powerful motivator spite is.  
> Alaina's cat café is the brainchild of @katie-lynch-official on tumblr and Blake Nielsen is my kfam-sona, from back when I still cared to do things on the big server. Café Gold is from one of my original stories haha.

Ben pokes his head into the living room, holding onto the doorjamb to keep his balance. "Hey Sammy, I'm going out for a bit, thought I'd let you know. I'm meeting Emily for coffee, I shouldn't be gone for more than a couple hours."

Sammy glances up at him, then back at the TV. "Have fun," he says, maybe not as enthusiastically as he was going for. Can anyone blame him? He still isn't sure what exactly Ben's playing at, _if_ he's actually doing anything, if the mutuality of this game is just in Sammy's head, and the reminder of his girlfriend doesn't help.

"Thanks!" Ben calls, oblivious to any possible malaise, and then he's gone.

* * *

There's no particular "usual" place they go to when they hang out. Sometimes it's Rose's, sometimes it's the little hipster place on main street. Today, they're meeting up at the Cat Café on 53rd, and Ben's grateful. Not because he loves playing with the cats (and not-cats) there, but because it's quiet and the booths are pretty private, and he doesn't want anyone to overhear the story he knows he's going to end up spilling to Emily.

…and also because he loves the cats.

Em's shoes are already in one of the cubbies just inside the door, and Ben puts his in the spot next to them. He's come here enough times that he's used to the whole deal, and also recognizes the young man working at the till today.

"Hey Blake," he greets, waving from the door.

Blake grins at him, waiting until he's closer before replying. "Morning Ben! What will you have today?"

Ben peers at the options scrawled on the blackboard behind the counter. He hums and haws for a bit, Blake waiting patiently, before deciding on the 'catte'. And a cinnamon bun from the little display case, just because.

"Your total comes to $17. I'll bring you your drink when it's done. Oh, and Emily got here a few minutes ago, she's in the booth by the cat room door."

"Thanks, man!"

Ben pays then takes his cinnamon bun and heads through the archway into the café. He spots Emily the same moment she sees him and waves him over, other hand curled around a plain white mug. She smiles as he sits down, laughing into her cup when she sees the sweet.

"Getting one over Sammy's new meal plan?"

Ben groans theatrically, slumping over the table. "He wants to kill me, Em. I can't survive without my sugar, you _know_ that."

"I'm sure you could," she says, the traitor.

"I don't want to _try_."

Emily laughs at him, not even trying to hide it behind her drink this time, and Ben grins against the table. He loves it when she lets herself be happy without restraint, even if it's at his expense. Who knew breaking up could be so good for their relationship?

Blake comes by with his drink then, a plain latte in a pink mug, decorated with a white smiling cat face. He sets it down beside Ben's head, close to the middle of the table so he doesn't hit it when he sits up. The man doesn't say anything, just looks at the scene with a little grin before heading back to the front counter.

Ben makes a show of pushing himself back up to a proper upright position, groaning about what a Herculean task it is, how weak and frail he's become—and badly hides his grin behind his coffee when Emily laughs until she snorts. She hates that, he knows, but he thinks it's cute and does his best to make it happen at least once every time they see each other. Sometimes he doesn't succeed, but he always tries.

They start drinking their coffees in silence, letting the calm of the café soothe any tension they might have brought in with them. Ben watches the cats as he does so, seeing how many of them he can still name, making note of any who have disappeared since the last time he was here. Most of the cats are permanent residents, but there _is_ still an adoption program and Ben does know of a few who have been rehomed. None of the unique cats have left, though, something he's unsurprised to notice.

There's Glunkus, curled up in Blake's lap like he is every time there's a lull in business and Blake has the chance to visit the cats himself. Milk or Cookies (Ben can never tell them apart) is lounging on a multilevel tree in the corner, and Domino's purring up a storm in the lap of another patron. There are a couple more batting at various toys; Luna and Clark wrestling off to the side; a flicker Ben only catches out of the corner of his eye that's probably Jacqueline.

None of the cats come to visit him, Ben's disappointed to notice. It's actually pretty par for the course—Ben wants a cat to visit and something about the vibes that gives off manages to chase them away. Emily never has this problem. All the cats love her.

(Ben's not jealous.)

(…alright, maybe he is.)

Emily breaks the silence to ask him how he's been and Ben dives into the topic. There's nothing happening in his work life ("Merv said he'd hire us back whenever they finish construction, but that won't be for _months_ and there's only so many high school events I can commentate.") and besides these get-togethers, there's nothing really happening in his social life either.

The library keeps Emily pretty busy, she tells him. "Between events for the kids and keeping the shelves full and in proper order, not to _mention_ the _states_ some people return books in, I'm honestly surprised I'm able to get out of there and do anything unrelated to work."

Ben winces in sympathy. "I'm glad it's not totally bogging you down. You've got a few more assistants now, don't you?"

"Two, yes, and a page, though she might get promoted soon."

They chat like this for a while, getting caught back up, and Ben relaxes as the minutes pass. At one point, Jacqueline comes over to greet Emily, ignoring Ben completely. She only stays for a few pets before drifting away, but that's usual for her. Cookies naps next to his feet for a stretch, then vanishes as seamlessly as he'd shown up. Ben finishes his coffee and debates buying another one before deciding that's probably not a good idea.

Another silence settles over the table and it's comfortable, easy, but it also lets Ben remember what he's been doing for the last few weeks. His cheeks warm and he starts playing with the empty cup, something Emily definitely notices. She hums questioningly and Ben decides to just get it out there and over with.

"Em? I think I'm in way over my head."

She sighs. "What did you do this time?"

"Don't _say_ it like that," Ben whines. "You make it sound like I'm always doing something bad."

"You _are_ always getting into trouble, Benny," she says, smiling sweetly. Ben crosses his arms and huffs, pointedly looking away. "Benny," she says gently. "You had a topic?"

"Right. Uh." He clears his throat, which doesn't do anything to lower it's pitch when he says, "so. You know how thin my walls are."

"I'm aware," she says wryly.

Ben blushes. "Ha ha. Yeah. Well. I've been, um… showing off? To Sammy? And we're—I don't know what we're doing exactly but I realized I'm totally unprepared for anything that could come out of this and now I don't know what to do."

" _Ben_ ," Emily groans, looking disapproving. "And what's Sammy said about this?"

" _Uhh_. I… haven't talked to him about it. And, er. He hasn't done anything back," well, there was that _one time_ , but that probably wasn't related and Ben's just imagining things, "but he hasn't told me to stop either."

" _Ben_."

"Don't _do_ that," Ben whines, sliding down in his seat. "I know, okay? I know I shouldn't be doing this. But it's… it's _addicting_. And it's _Sammy_."

And Emily is well acquainted with that reasoning. When they started hanging out together, after she came back from the lights, after she finally ditched Greg, Ben had stumbled his way through a conversation about sexuality and relationships and eventually confessed his big dumb crush on his best friend and co-host. It hadn't been surprising to hear, because honestly, those two were the most obvious and _oblivious_ men she knew. She was just surprised that Ben _realized_ he had an honest crush instead of playing it off as some kind of bromance thing.

"What do you hope to get out of this?"

"I… haven't thought that far ahead yet either," Ben admits sheepishly. "I mean, I know what I _want_ to happen, but I don't know if that'll ever actually happen. I don't know if Sammy wants that too."

"You could ask him."

Ben grimaces and looks away. "I don't want to," he mutters petulantly. "I… _like_ doing this."

"Of course you do," Emily sighs.

"And I don't… want to _lose_ this if I say something and he hates it or me or decides to leave or—" Ben sucks in a breath and closes his eyes, all the better to block whatever expression Em might be wearing right now. "If neither of us says anything, I won't have to stop."

It's awful, he _knows that_ , but… what else can he do, when he isn't sure of what will break this fragile peace? And there's also the issue of— "Am I being selfish? Since Sammy's—he's got—" Ben can't make himself say it. That Sammy's engaged, and they're all looking for a way to free Jack and reunite them—and then there's Ben, doing _this_.

Emily lifts her mug to her lips, but not fast enough to cover her grimace. Ben swallows hard and drops his gaze to the table, hands holding his own cup tightly enough to strain his muscles and make them shake.

"I don't know what you want me to say, Benny. This all… it's a big mess of a situation and there's as many uncertainties as there aren't. We don't even know if we'll be able to bring Jack back, or if he'll be the same when we do. Is it better for Sammy to wait until then to choose what he wants, or is it okay for him to… maybe not _move on_ , exactly, but take a step back, check his options for _now_ rather than for the future. Which," she points out, "he can't make an informed decision on unless you _talk to him_."

When Ben grimaces, she reaches over and grips his hand. She has to wrestle it off his mug, but does so without hesitation. "I know it's hard," she says gently, "but wouldn't it be better if it was all out there? If you two could work through this to find a solution that benefits both of you?"

"Assuming there is one," Ben grumbles, holding on tight to his pessimism. Better to set the bar as low as it'll go and be pleasantly surprised at a positive outcome than get his hopes up and get hurt from the fall.

Emily quirks a half-smile, an indecipherable glint in her eyes. "I can't read his mind so I don't know how he feels about this, or how he'll react when you tell him, but something tells me this isn't as hopeless as you think it is."

Ben's innate optimism briefly surfaces from the box he stuffed it into. "You think so? Why?"

"Nuh-uh," she grins and shakes her head. "You're gonna have to ask _him_ that."

Ben grumbles, shooting her a petulant scowl, but all she does is laugh at him. "That's not _fair_ ," he whines. But he knows she's right. That's definitely something he should hear from the source, no matter how much he doesn't want to have that conversation. At least, not yet.

There's not much else to talk about after that, so Emily finishes her drink and they take their cups to the bus tub. Blake gives them a slightly distracted smile and wave as they pass by and Ben grins back. They step outside into the afternoon light.

"Same time next week?" Ben asks.

"I'll let you know when I'm free," Emily corrects. "We can go to Café Gold next time." That's her new favorite coffee shop, apparently, Ben thinks with a little grin. She's suggested it three times in a row by now. Emily rolls her eyes and elbows him in the ribs, aware and not having any of his silent teasing.

"Sounds like a plan," he says aloud.

Emily hugs him before she leaves and it's… really nice. It's been a while since he's been hugged and he missed it. He gives her one last squeeze and she giggles into his hair, and then she's off, waving behind her as she goes.

Ben stuffs his hands in his pockets and heads home, feeling light and happy.

* * *

Ben gets home to find Sammy relaxing on the couch, reading a book. The man glances up when he hears the door, and aims a smile at Ben. "Hey. How was your date?"

"Date?" Ben repeats blankly. "Oh! You mean with Emily. It wasn't a date."

Sammy blinks. "I thought… didn't you two get together a couple weeks ago?"

Ben blinks back, then smacks his forehead. "Right! I never said—we broke up. Turns out we don't work like that. It's all good though, we're still friends, nothing's—nothing changed, we're still as close as ever."

"Oh. That's, uh, that's good."

Sammy continues to stare at him, brow furrowed as his perceptions are all rearranged. Ben shuffles awkwardly. "Okay. Well. I'm gonna… go."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure."

Sammy still looks out of sorts as Ben heads for his room to change, but Ben doesn't think there's anything he can do to help. Besides talking, which would lead to talking about his _game_ and he's… not ready to do that. He _knows_ he needs to, Emily was able to pound that into his head, but… not yet.

There's still more fun to be had.


End file.
